


Mall Brawl

by Lunarium



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: F/F, Space Mall
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-08
Updated: 2017-10-08
Packaged: 2019-01-07 23:37:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,631
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12242850
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lunarium/pseuds/Lunarium
Summary: Luki is bored of the Space Mall, but Pidge makes it worthwhile again.





	Mall Brawl

**Author's Note:**

  * For [meru](https://archiveofourown.org/users/meru/gifts).



Arms folded, Luki watched with vague hope that the alien walking down the pristine stairs while supporting a dozen shopping bags would slip the rest of the way down. If he was lucky, a pair of sluggish Kermill had passed by earlier, and they always left a slimy trail in their wake. Or one of his kids would take a wrong turn at the right time and he’d trip over them and topple the rest of the way. Fun for the whole family!

But it was not to be. The family reached the end of the stairs without incident, and all Luki earned from watching was a yawn. 

Not even a single bag ripped. Boring! 

At least no one was bothering her at information desk today. She had just about enough of the crowd that frequented the Space Mall: the rude and entitled fools who couldn’t be bothered to read because they must have been royalties in another life, up there with Lord Zarkon himself; the gabbing ones who’d tell you their entire life story before asking for the loo, the bashfully shy who took hours to finally figure out what it was they were looking for (there was nothing embarrassing about _shoes_ for goodness sakes!), the dumbfuck kids who picked their noses and left their dug-outs as some kind of tip for Luki to scrape off with a brochure. 

She couldn’t believe there had been a time when she loved going to this mall, used to beg and scream for her parents to take her just so she could get the chance to ride the GAC-operated alien-moose or visit the toy stores or the book store to see if they had the newest issues of all her favorite comics and that universally popular children’s mystery series by that one Puigian. The bustling of shoppers, which used to be a sweet backdrop of pleasant days spent here, now buzzed in her head like a constant annoying wasp that wouldn’t go away. 

And no other establishment would at least give her a job interview. 

So unfair. 

She was standing there, debating with herself which joint from the food court was going to get her lunch money today when she noticed a crowd of people pooling towards one area. 

_What’s this, a mall brawl?_ she wondered hopefully. 

She rushed over to the crowd and was mildly disappointed to see nothing of the sort. No broken noses or blood on the ground. No one crying or screams for mall security. 

Just some kid putting up a flyer. 

It reached each corner of the wall, and the crowd were talking in excited hushed whispers. 

“Come back tomorrow for announcements on the Voltron Coalition!” 

“Voltron? What’s that, some marketing for a new movie?” Luki said, rolling her eyes. She’s seen enough of this crap for the razzle-dazzle to lose its luster on her. _The Fast and the Spacey Eight_ was so ridiculous that just watching them film it a few feet away bore her to tears. 

Just then the kid who had put up the flyer snuck past the crowd. They wore a long hood covering their face and when they heard Luki’s comment they stopped and stared. 

Luki glared back, daring. 

A hand came up and pulled the hood back, revealing a vaguely familiar face wearing a cheeky grin. 

“Not a movie,” she said, “but if you come back tomorrow you’re going to see the biggest robot of your life!” 

Luki rolled her eyes again. “I _work_ here. I’ve seen it all. You’re going to be making a ruckus over a _robot_?” 

“Hey, this robot is the defender of the universe if you’ve been paying any attention!” 

Luki shrugged. “I might have read that in the Daily Intergalactic Herald once or twice. It might have slipped my mind.” 

The girl’s lips quivered. Poor thing. Luki would have felt bad for her, but there was something fun in tormenting her like this. And she wasn’t lying. She didn’t really know much about Voltron. She didn’t really care; she wasn’t a fan of the Galra Empire either, but what could you do? 

“Gee, for someone who looks like a pink-haired punk rockstar you sure don’t seem to like fun. Or to rebel.” 

“A—what?” 

The girl perked up. “A punk rockstar! That’s what we call your style on Earth!” 

“Earth? Sounds so… _erh_.” 

She laughed. “You have a whole store of Earth products! Haven’t you ever seen it before? Earth is _totally_ the very opposite of _erh_!” 

Now that she mentioned it, Luki hadn’t. And her face said enough, because the girl took it as invite to approach her and offer her hand. 

“Come on, I’ll take you to it. My name’s Pidge, by the way.” 

Finding no obligation, and having given herself away as having no life beyond the information desk, Luki followed. 

Pidge took her to the shop, and Luki’s eyes widened. She had never went by this wing before and must have missed when this store was set up. She didn’t even know the name; no one ever bothered asking about it. 

“This sells Earth stuff?” she said, taking a peek inside. The alien at the counter glanced up and waved. He wore the oddest clothes and jewelry. “Isn’t Earth, like, primitive? That’s what I heard.” 

Pidge laughed. “So you _have_ heard about us! Well, humans may not have been around as long as the Unilu or the Galra but look at what we have! Oh, and that’s Roswell over there. That’s what he likes being called, at least.” 

She dragged her over to a display where an apparatus protruded out of a screen. The screen flashed when Pidge pressed a few buttons. 

“Try it!” she said, stepping aside. The words _Killbot Phantasm I_ flashed across the screen above a colorful cast of characters.

“What is this?” Luki asked while doing a somewhat terrible job of hiding her disinterest. 

“A video game,” Pidge said. A few moments later Luki realized the girl was studying her with a sly smile. “Here, let me show you how to play it! But you have to read all of the dialogue and the story bits that come up.” 

“It’s a _story?_ ” 

“Part of it! That’s what makes the game fun!”

She pressed play, and the wall of words appeared, scrolling upwards as they read. Just as Luki was getting sick of the story-telling, the battle began. She was not prepared for this. 

“Did you see that?” she cried out as the words Game Over flashed in bright red across the screen. “We could have gotten past that tunnel if that stupid giant lizard got out of the way!” 

“Well, he’d only get out of the way if we kill it!” Pidge laughed. “That’s sort of the point.” She gave a quick wink to Roswell. “Think it’s time for the old fav, green guy?” 

“What old fav?” Luki asked. She was taken to another game center that was shaped differently. She had the distinct impression that this one had to be an older model. She played with the controllers a bit and watched as the weird yellow ball with eyes zoomed across the screen, smacking against the wall. 

“What is this?” 

“You have to eat all the white dots and the fruit—no, avoid the ghosts! You can eat them _after_ you eat the fruit!” 

“What human sat around and thought of a stupid game like _this_?” Luki cried out but she laughed as she got the little Pac-man to dash away from a pink ghost, munch on a red fruit, then swing on back to eat the ghost that had been chasing it. She gave a tiny victory dance as the ghost eyes spun around before disappearing off screen. 

Then realizing that Pidge and Roswell were watching her, she coughed and shrugged. 

“This is kinda fun,” she said.

*

Afterwards she treated Pidge to one of her favorite sundaes from the food court.

“That Vrepit Sal is getting better,” Pidge commented as she watched him from a distance. “Hunk will be pleased to hear that. Hopefully he won’t be after him when we do our little promotion tomorrow.” 

“About that,” Luki said. “What’s this coalition again?” 

Pidge gave a long look before finally smiling, and Luki was surprised to detect sadness in it. “I think, as much as you hated the Space Mall, it’s been protecting you. We’re at war with the Galra Empire. I’m one of the fighters. I’ve been risking my life every day, and looking for my brother. I don’t know anything about my father’s status yet.” 

The words rose like ice over her two right arms that had nothing to do with the sundae. She gulped. She was born under the Empire’s rule. So were her parents, and their parents. They were used to this. 

“So you’re shaking things up, huh?” 

“Yeah, you could say that,” Pidge said. “We were thrown into it, we being the fighters from Earth. We don’t regret it because Zarkon could have taken over Earth, easily. So we’ve been searching for anyone who would join us in the coalition. Tomorrow, we hope to come here, but we’re advertising so anyone who’s coming to the Mall will know to return tomorrow.” 

“Aren’t you afraid someone from the Empire will show up?” 

Pidge shrugged. “We’re prepared for a battle. We have backup.” 

Luki grinned. “A mall brawl. I want to see that.” 

Pidge rolled her eyes. “Of course you’d say that. But you really don’t want to _see_ that.” 

“You have any more flyers you need to put up?”

Pidge considered. “I think I’m all set with them…”

“I have an intercom set at my station.” 

Pidge thought for a moment before grinning. “I think…we would all like that very much.”


End file.
